Saturday, April 14, 2007

I visited our local Borders yesterday to check out a couple of titles I've been considering for purchase. One of these was The Annotated Alice in Wonderland. This book was mentioned in a recent post by Monica Edinger in her blog, Educating Alice. Monica's use of Alice in the classroom intrigues me since I have never poured through a classic in such detail.

Here is how my search transpired:I begin by searching for the Annotated Alice in Fiction/Literature and do not find it. I do find one copy of Alice in Wonderland. Then I search for a copy of The Annotated Brothers Grimm and can't find that copy in the appropriate social sciences/folklore section. I begin to wonder if both of these books are shelved elsewhere in the store since they are from the same publisher. I decide to ask the help desk. A young man types in the title to the computer. He spells annotated, "Annitatid." I correct him since I think spelling might be important in a title search.We find the book in the system and it is in the store. OK. I knew this as well. Next we walk over to the fiction/literature section and he informs me that it is sorted by last name. He begins to look for Lewis. By now, is it really worth the search? Do I correct him again? I say, "I think that the last name is Carroll, not Lewis. He doesn't believe me. I say it again. Not until I actually say "I see a copy of Alice in Wonderland over there (in the C's) does he finally follow. Of course, we do not locate the book since I have already been in this section of the store. This is the final kicker. He picks up the one copy of Alice in Wonderland and says......."Wow! She only wrote one book!" (Later, I came to the realization that Lewis Carroll was mistaken for a girl since the bookstore worker assumed Carroll was a standard girl's name and therefore, Lewis must be the last name.)The message: Support your local bookseller!

1 comment:

This reminds me of when I was trying to find the book Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and the big chain bookstore clerk kept telling me that I had the wrong book name. They told me I must be thinking of the book Tangerine by Edward Bloor.